Molly Landis ’27
News Editor
SPEECH, Students Promoting Empathy, Expression, and Civic Harmony, is a peer education group on campus that was started last year by Caitlin MacNeil ‘13, Associate Director for Leadership Development, and Dean Michelle Bata, Associate Dean for Student Education. They created this group in order to provide a community that is focused on constructive conversations in order to protect freedom of speech. They believe that students will learn better from other students. Last year, in their first year, there were 12 SPEECH Peer Educators, and this year that number has grown to 20. In a conversation with MacNeil, she stated that, “The group continues to think of new ways to get themselves involved, especially in an election year.” She continued by saying that we, as a Holy Cross community, are a “microcosm of the environment and world around us [and that] the world needs more people willing to have conversations.” SPEECH is a group to help do this and while this is not an easy task, it is worth the work.
SPEECH is a member of the Constructive Dialogue Institute and, as a part of that they launched a platform called Perspectives, which was a requirement for all first year students to complete and a platform that many of the student leaders also completed. Perspectives teaches the philosophy of difference, and helps to prepare students for constructive dialogue. During freshman orientation, members of the club introduced who they were, reminded them about their Perspective modules, and did a skit to show an example of constructive dialogue that could be shown on campus. They also answered questions about their personal experiences regarding open dialogue at Holy Cross. While SPEECH has been focusing on dialogues surrounding the election recently, they are always interested in talking about what the student population wants to talk about. A recent SPEECH event, Pizza & Perspectives, allowed students to reflect on the election and how they were feeling since then. The most popular SPEECH event, Dialogue Dinners, provides a place for students to speak about a wide variety of topics. This is a healthy, safe space, in which students can speak their minds about issues that matter to them. Ian Sykes ‘28 stated, “I enjoy that they exist at all: an open environment to talk about things that are uncomfortable.” He noted that the openness of the dinners, the ability to feel able to speak his opinions, is what stands out about the SPEECH event. Past Dialogue Dinners have been about the Israel Gaza conflict, the election, canceled culture, and most recently, the future of democracy. Keep your eye out on MyHC for the upcoming Dialogue Dinners so that you can enjoy a nice meal and an open conversation with your peers.
Julia Kane ‘27, a SPEECH peer educator, spoke about the variety of events she has been able to be a part of due to her involvement in the group. Last year, SPEECH peer educators facilitated a meeting with Pax Christi, about freedom of speech in academics. They also facilitated a discussion between Feminist Forum and Students for Life on reproductive rights. Kane is very involved with the group and especially enjoys facilitating Dialogue Dinners. She stated, “SPEECH is truly one of my favorite things to be a part of on campus and it has made a significant difference in how I communicate and express my opinions. I love being able to create spaces for constructive dialogue with my fellow SPEECH peer educators and I hope it’s improving our campus community.”
Featured image courtesy of @speechathc on Instagram
Copy Edited by Lily Wasmund ’28
Leave a Reply